The invention relates to a viscous material feed system with a platen and method, in particular for a viscous material processing system.
In a viscous material processing system, feed is mixed and additives are injected in precise proportions to produce a customized product. The system requires exact and reliable dosing and feed operations to achieve uniform products with narrow tolerance properties. Feed material for these processes can be delivered to processing sites in various containers. When delivered, the material must be removed from the container for processing. For example, a processing system can require emptying material such as silicone gum from drums or similar containers. However, the feed material may be very viscous and resistant to flow and hence, resistant to removal from the delivery container.
Some container emptying processes use a plunger to drive through the container to empty its content. In these processes, a flat forward platen of the plunger imposes upon the material to drive it from the container for further processing. However, forcibly driving material from a container requires that both container ends be open. The open ends can adversely affect container integrity. Forcibly emptying the open container can result in rupture and loss of material. Other less robust emptying methods avoid container collapse but fail to completely empty a container. There is a need for a device and method to remove viscous material from a container to empty all the material without collapsing the container.